and by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. >> welcome. lately i've had phaedra on my mind. not the greek myth of the tragic daughter of that name, but the retelling of the story in a 1962 movie starring tony perkins and melina mercouri. their illicit affair over, perkins crashes his cherished roadster over a cliff. a big sendoff accompanied by none other than johann sebastian bach. >> oh john sebastian! you're playing your music like crazy and i'm listening to it in greece! what are you doing here? oh john! why aren't you home minding the children? i at least had some business in greece! i had a father that killed every phaedra! phaedra! phaedra! >> that scene actually keeps coming to mind as i try to follow the melodrama in washington that has us heading for a cliff. a fiscal cliff. but are we? or is this, another myth in the making? for some insight, we turn to two seasoned observers both of whose books you'll want to as santa to leave in your stocking. bruce bartlett was a